Sisters are Special

Today is my sister Nicole's birthday! She is the big 25--a quarter of a century. She is quite the darling girl, and I am excited for her blogspot debut. My birthday was on the 26th of March, so we are exactly 2 years and 5 days apart. Nicole has led the life that I dreamed about living: she has visited and lived in many exotic climes including Peru, Costa Rica, China and Hawaii to name a few. She recently returned to the US after serving an 18 month LDS mission in the Netherlands, so she knows how to speak Spanish and Dutch as well as English. She graduated with a BA in Business from Westminster University. Yep, she's pretty much an all around spectacular person. As her older and only sibling, I feel her next step is find the perfect man (if anyone can do it, it's her). The question now is: what man dares to align himself with such a strong woman? One who knows how to roast her turkey and eat it too?

No joke! this is really how she eats every meal!

Eve at the birthday party last Saturday (3/28)

Eve had her two month/two week doctor's appointment today. She grew two inches and gained 7.5 ounces! Her stats are now 7.7 lb, 20.75 inches. We are so excited! She is doing well. Also, the best news of all is that she no longer has to be on the pulse oximeter! YAY! We hated that thing, although I nursed her without it and I was very nervous without that yellow, digital reassuring beep that she was breathing and maintaining her sats okay. Here are a couple of little video clips of her first bath in the NICU. They are part of a much longer video, and I tried to put together a shortened version, but didn't have enough room on the drive(?) It was only a 3 minute clip, it has to work somehow, but I will deal with it later. For now, here are just two little blips of it.

7=0 (?)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Eve's due date is today! With her adjusted age, she is now at the ZERO mark. So all developmental stages start here at this sort of ground zero place. But as you can see from some pictures this morning, she has already started developing a highly acute and funny sense of humor. Sometimes she is a sneaky leprechaun, other times a screaming banshee, but always my sweet bonny lass.

Eve's biggest modeling infulences include Calvin from "Calvin & Hobbes" and Ben Stiller in "Zoolander"

Lovenox is Not Pretty

In order to get my blood thinner, I had to take a shot in the stomach twice a day for over a month. Thankfully, that is over now, I just have to take a pill. But during the last week I was on the shots, Richie accidently knicked one of my veins and I got the most gnarly, disguting, painful bruise. It actually looks pretty good in these pictures--I should've taken some while it was still at its worst stage. But these give an idea. I'm actually proud of it--a war wound of sorts. Please ignore my jello-like post-partum stomach. That's scarier than the bruise.

I wrote a couple of haiku about my bruise:


scarlet petaled bloom
tattoed across the belly
multi-colored pain


a shot to the gut
silently enters and bursts--
rainbow punch smears hard


I've been trying to get a good picture of Eve so I can make and mail birth announcements. Every time, every time, I try to do a photo shoot with her, this is what happens:

Eve loves her baths about 90% of the time. Otherwise, she's screaming. She's going to be a water baby like her mama. She actually looks like a real baby with chunk rolls! Or at least, the beginning of fat rolls. On Friday she weighed 6 lb 5 oz. Tomorrow is her due date--she'll be seven weeks old tomorrow too. She's grown out of her preemie clothes, but is still too big for newborn stuff. But I am sad to see my tiny daughter move on--she's so cute and small!

Funniest Show on Earth? (Mars Might Have Something Better...Nah...)

I have plenty of photos to post of Eve, and some really cute video too. (But it needs to be edited. I don't think you, my dear reader, wants to see 20 minutes of her cooing and giving gas grins; though she is sooooo darling when she does!)

But I need a break from talking about my life. So today I'm throwing down a quote from the TV show "The Office." Proof that it is THE most hilarious thing on television. I'm so in love.

A list created between Jim and Dwight while trying to plan the ideal birthday party for Kelly in the office:

beer
fighting to the death
cupcakes
blood pudding
blood
touch football
mating
charades
horse hunting

O Glorious Day, She's Home At Last!

Readers, my heart has never been swollen with more joy, nor have I ever been so exhausted in all my life! After nearly five weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, our daughter Eve has come home! What an unimaginable journey this has been, and will continue to be, I'm sure.

in her carseat for her ride home!

Eve was originally scheduled to come home last weekend, but as Murphy's Law would have it, our pediatrician went out of town that weekend, and Eve decided to start choking on her bottle feedings, causing her heart rate to drop and her oxygen saturation levels to drop. She had been put back on oxygen to see if that would help her desats (dropping oxygen levels), which it did to some degree, but not as much as we hoped it would. After she started her choking spells, I knew she wouldn't be coming home last weekend, which made me very sad and frustrated. However, a neonatologist from Odgen came up to Logan on Thursday, and took a look at her. He has been a neonatologist for over 30 years, and he said that he thought nothing was wrong with Eve, but that she is just a preemie, and she's doing what preemies do: taking a little extra time to work things out. We've decided that her desats were caused by reflux, even though she doesn't spit up much. He thought she might be a week younger or so than originally thought, which would explain why she wasn't growing out of her bradycardia (heart rate suddenly dropping). But he suggested taking back off the oxygen and seeing how she did her feeds.

she loves her new play n' pack bassinett

with dad after her bath--note the darling, tiny ducky outfit--Eve looks pretty good too

For the most part, she feeds excellently. She will still desat sometimes, but we have oxygen here at home so that if she needs it, she can have it. She is also on an oxcimeter (spelling?) which means there's a little probe on her foot connected to a machine that will beep if she falls below a certain oxygen level. But no more stickers, tubes, needles, IVs, or anything else on her face and body! I had never seen her face without something stuck on it or in it until yesterday. And hopefully her reflux will not be a problem as she gets older. I'm am hoping she gets off the machine soon, because it beeps ALL THE TIME.

i love her preemie outfits--polka dots and giraffes are tres chic

Let's cross our fingers that we'll never step foot in the NICU again. Eve is home! I am finally a real mommy! She is home, she is home, she is home!

kangaroo care with mom--also the first day she nursed!